Office and Pulls

This was a chilly but clear and sunny day at Lake Esau, almost blindingly bright.  The ice on the lake is getting thin, and spring is almost, but not quite, in the air.  Today was also the next-to-the-last day of work on the house.

I arrived mid-afternoon, after taking services at St. Paul's ELCA Church in Alpena — my first experience leading worship in a Lutheran church.  Mark and Jason, the painters, were just packing up.  Kyle, Dave and I are very pleased with the quality of their work.  I realize it's hard to tell from a photo, but they did a superb job — as neat and attentive to detail as one could wish.  These guys will return in a few days to put a coat of polyurethane on the stairs, and I also talked with them about painting the exterior doors in the spring.

A neatly cut-in section of the stairwell.

Kyle had the office cabinetry and countertop assembled by the time I got to the house.  The right-hand set of drawers had been notched around the baseboard radiator, and the front panel taken from the no-longer-needed drawer had become a flip-down covering for a cubby.  Isn't it amazing what you can do with a piano hinge!  Then Kyle completed the countertop by adding trim along the wall edges.  This echoes the baseboard treatment, and will protect the wall from being dinged if something gets shoved into it.

The three-drawer base unit fits snugly around the radiator.

This cubby will serve as a stash for hard-to-store items.

Kyle nails in the trim for the countertop.

In my opinion, the result is stunning.  For years my "home office" has been the dining room table.  Now  I'll have a generous work station for the computer (at the corner), a second work space (under the window), and even a perch for a small TV (at the far left).  Combined with literally yards of bookshelves within easy reach, this small room will probably be one of the most-used spaces in the house.  And there is even space at the end of the desk for a comfortable chair.  If I can't sleep, I can watch the late night comedy shows or HSN!

The corner space will be my computer work station.

These shelves back up to the stairwell.

A chair can fill the space in front of this
handsome bookcase.

Dave's main focus today was cleaning the baseboard radiators.  These units took a beating from the first group of painters, who neglected to mask this metal when spraying stain on the windows above.  Dave was able to get most of this over-spray off most of the radiators using paint remover and similar nasty chemicals.  Unfortunately, nothing could touch the radiator in the living room, which got the heaviest over-spray.  This unit will have to be sanded and repainted.  Mark and Jason are checking with auto painting companies to see if they can find a close color match.

The over-spray here is too heavy for
normal cleaning.

Dave sprayed several metal screws with black paint and swapped them for the zinc screws which Yogi used to put the stovepipe together.  This was really quite thoughtful and completely unexpected.  The stovepipe will look much the better for it.

Dave swaps out the metal screws.

Zinc screws stood out like a sore thumb.
 The black ones are a visual enhancement. 

Doug, who works with Hap, returned today to build the stairs for the front entrance and the two doors on the south side of the building.  The latter are 3-steps high.  Will these require a handrail?  The building inspector will tell us, I'm sure.

We now have stairs at the front entrance...

...and at the south entrances (guest bedroom and bath).

Kyle checked another task off the list by installing the "safety barrier" at the windows over the master bathroom's tub.  If it makes the building inspector happy, so be it.  Maybe it can function as a grab bar for someone getting into or out of the tub.  Or maybe it will just vanish after the inspector has given his blessing.

In the photo below note the strong sunlight and even an open window!  Kyle found it uncomfortably warm working in the bath and vented some of the heat.  But the boiler had not cycled on for quite awhile.  At 5:00, with the thermostat set at 62, the hallway temperature was 70 and the master bedroom was certainly above that.  As I observed in an earlier post, this house simply doesn't lose heat very quickly.  In fact, on sunny winter days the problem may not be heating, but over-heating!

Kyle screws in the "grab bar" above the tub.

Pretty good for just sunshine!

Dave's next chore was putting on the cabinet pulls.  As you recall, these arrived at the 11th hour.  They are a small but necessary item, because you literally can't open drawers without them.  The reveal (open space) between drawers is too narrow for my fingers, and the soft-close hardware makes the drawers hard to open unless you have something to pull on.  Hence, pulls!  Like light fixtures, cabinet hardware is one of those areas where you can spend yourself into the poorhouse.  These are simple, attractive, and relatively cheap.

The pantry cabinet gets its pulls.

You can choose between literally thousands of cabinet pulls
at every price point.  I went for simple and inexpensive.

Kyle finished the day by working on the remaining trim for the stairway bookcases.  This detail had to wait until the stairs were built and the painting had been done.  The trim works around the stairs.

Note the trim for the bookcase.

More detail work remains for tomorrow — but tomorrow is definitely the last day! •••